John F. Marszalek is W. L. Giles Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus, and Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association’s U. S. Grant Presidential Library, at Mississippi State University.
As the first fully annotated edition of Ulysses S. Grant’s Personal
Memoirs, this fine volume leaps straight onto the roster of
essential reading for anyone even vaguely interested in Grant and
the Civil War. The book is deeply researched, but it introduces its
scholarship with a light touch that never interferes with the
reader’s enjoyment of Grant’s fluent narrative. John F. Marszalek
and the folks at the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library are
building a formidable array of books illuminating many aspects of
the general’s life.
*Ron Chernow, author of Grant*
A richly annotated new edition… What gives this peculiarly reticent
book its power? Above all, authenticity. If Grant’s voice is never
confessional, it almost never rings false… Grant’s style is
strikingly modern in its economy.
*New York Times*
[This] new edition, the most thoroughly annotated ever produced,
provides the general reader and scholar alike with detailed access
to the general’s early life and military career.
*New York Review of Books*
If Mark Twain called Grant’s Memoirs ‘a great, unique and
unapproachable literary masterpiece,’ The Complete Annotated
Edition is its ‘unique’ companion. Renowned Civil War historian
John Marszalek and his team of editors are owed our gratitude.
Their annotated edition will increase appreciation among both
longtime admirers and a new generation discovering why Grant is
winning his deserved place among American leaders.
*Ronald C. White, author of American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses
S. Grant*
Grant’s style is direct and plain, but it has a kind of quiet music
to it, the indescribable quality of an authentic voice. There is a
level of intimacy that no amount of confessional writing could
guarantee. Grant’s assessment of the Civil War and the decisions
that went into its waging is mostly brisk and engaging, but what
really compelled me through the book were the psychological
insights on nearly every page—both of the prominent men whom Grant
encountered and of the masses of people whose desires and fears he
recognized, sympathized with, and often exploited. Grant’s ability
to be empathetic and ruthless in the span of a few sentences—coolly
calculating the costs of losing lives against the benefits of
pushing on; testing what Southerners could bear and what would make
them break—is consistently on display. Whatever Grant hides in his
memoir is less than what he reveals. He was a man who could cringe
at the cruelty of a bullfight but was willing to send men into
certain slaughter to gain a riverbank, a man who understood both
dignity and disgrace.
*New Yorker*
Of the many editions of the memoirs, I recommend the annotated
edition published by Harvard University Press overseen by John F.
Marszalek, director of the U. S. Grant Presidential Library at
Mississippi State, for its invaluable notes identifying almost
every personage mentioned by Grant, expanding on incidents and
events Grant glosses over and even correcting his occasional
misstatements.
*Los Angeles Times*
[R]espect for Grant can only be reinforced by reading…The Personal
Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. This is the best presidential memoir
written, once earning praise from no less than Mark Twain… Grant
wrote in a clear and logical style, much as he issued orders, which
brings the day-to-day challenges and tremors of war to his
readership with never a suggestion of embellishment.
*The Australian*
A brilliant new annotated version.
*Open Letters Monthly*
The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant provides leadership lessons that
can be obtained nowhere else…Ulysses Grant in his Memoirs gives us
a unique glimpse of someone who found that the habit of reflection
could serve as a force multiplier for leadership.
*Foreign Policy*
Ron Chernow’s Grant has been a national bestseller, deservedly so,
but we think that the new edition of The Personal Memoirs of
Ulysses S. Grant, edited and annotated [by] John F. Marszalek[,]
should share that spotlight. Possibly the best presidential memoir
written, annotations by Marszalek with David Nolen and Louis Gallo
illuminate and contextualize the memoir for the modern reader.
*Literary Hub*
[Grant’s] memoirs, presented at last in an impressive scholarly
edition by John F. Marszalek, were the fruit of a last triumphant
battle…Grant’s own words restore him to the pantheon of great
soldier-presidents. He stands alongside Washington, Andrew Jackson,
Teddy Roosevelt and Eisenhower, a select company to which he has
always rightfully belonged.
*History Today*
A worthy capstone to compliment the now completed thirty-two volume
The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant…Marszalek, et. al., have done a
thorough job in annotating Grant’s text…Readers of this
well-constructed and highly recommended edition of Grant’s Memoirs
will not fail to appreciate the man’s modesty, but they should also
keep in mind that under that modesty lay a cold-blooded willingness
to keep right on.
*Civil War Book Review*
The most copious annotated edition of Grant’s indispensable memoirs
to date… It’s been said that if you’re going to pick up one memoir
of the Civil War, Grant’s is the one to read. Similarly, if you’re
going to purchase one of the several annotated editions of his
memoirs, this is the collection to own, read, and reread.
*Library Journal*
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